Birthdays and Thanksgiving

Today is my sweet Mama's birthday! It is also my parents 40th anniversary which we will celebrate tomorrow and I will talk about later. Today, since it is Thanksgiving I want to tell my mother why I am thankful God chose her to be my Mama. She is not "Mom" or "Mother" she has always been and always will be "MY MAMA" Must be a southern thing.

Mama,
You have been the best kind of mother to my sisters and me. You were our mother and not our friend growing up. I never realized how hard that must have been for you until I had a teenage daughter and now I have another one! I am sorry I lost my mind for those teenage years. Thank you for waiting patiently - well for waiting- that I would regain my sanity at some point in my life. Thank you for nilla wafers with peanut butter and laying on a blanket and making cloud shapes with me when you got to stay home with me when I was little. Thank you for all that stopping when Jennifer came along - I mean thank you for my baby sister. Thank you for teaching me what hard work is about and working hard at all you do. See, you  knew making me dust the leaves on the plants would pay off. Hence the reason there are no potted plants in my house! hehe!
Thank you for inviting Granny to come live with us and allowing her the space to be our best friend growing up. My life would be so much different had she never come to our house for those 17 years. You used to say, "I wish I was sweet like Mother." Oh Mama, if you ever doubt that you aren't like Granny, just ask one of your grandchildren that adore you and think you hung the moon. They'll straighten you out.Thank you for teaching me that you were never stronger than when on your knees before the Lord. Your relationship with Jesus is a blessing to me and I thank Him that you love Him so much.
Thank you for not allowing me to be like so many other girls when I was growing up - even though I wanted to be like them so badly at the time.  Thank you for instilling confidence in me and never letting me have a pity party about anything in your presence. It didn't mean we couldn't be sad about things, we just weren't going to whine about things that didn't matter. Thank you for loving your family the way you do. You are such a tower of strength to so many people.
Thank you for instilling in me the love of shopping! You are so fun and so cute. I love hanging out with you. I hope my girls will feel that way when they are older.
Thank you for making us leave our childhood home and our tree swing and all our memories! I am kidding. Home is where ever you and Daddy are. I mean that. You do that - you make places feel like home cause you're Mama!
Much more to tell you but I will tell you in person when I see you tomorrow. I hope you all have a great day today.
I love you more than you can know and I am thankful I am the one that got to make you a Mama.
Happy Birthday and Happy Thanksgiving Mama.
Michelle

Family

This morning I am sitting in my favorite cozy chair in the corner and am mentally preparing for the next couple of days. I mean that in a good way not a negative one. Right now things are very silent in my house and over the next two days it will fill up with my loved ones and I won't be able to hear myself think. I can't wait!

A couple of days ago I began writing down all the scriptures I found about thanks, thankfulness and thanksgiving. Over and over I read how we are to give thanks in all circumstances, thank him in the morning and the evening. Be thankful. Overflow with thankfulness. Petition with thanksgiving. Remember and give thanks. Thanksgiving should not be a one time of the year occurence. It should be as natural to us as breathing. A constant state of thanksgiving and gratitude.

I started to think about where all my family members are this morning. Baby girl in her bed, one sweet grandpeep in my bed (which is somewhat like trying to sleep with a helicopter), another grandpeep on the other side of town sleeping in his bed- with his hands pushed up under the bumper pads. Two precious sons on their way to work. A daughter who is getting to sleep in this morning because I have the helicopter in my bed! A daughter-in-law preparing for all the things the day holds for her as a stay at home momma. A husband in his deer stand. A father-in-law who gets to go home today after a SEVENTY day hospital stay. A precious mother-in-law preparing for his homecoming. A mama who I am sure is sipping coffee on her back porch with one of my sisters and the rest of her house guests ( also people I love dearly). A sweet other momma who is hopefully sleeping in. Two wonderful men that are my daddys that are probably on the deer stand. ( We are a strange group of predators!) The sweet girlfriend of our baby boy getting ready for work and she will surely call me today and ask as she always does -"Do you need any help?" Another sister who just celebrated 14 years of marriage. A brother in the presence of the One who gives all these good and indescribable gifts. Thankful. Blessed. Speechless.
So much more I want to write that I am thankful for but right this minute I want to thank Him for my family. They are my heartbeat and I can't understand a God who lavishes His love on me so. Thank you Lord.
To be continued.......

THE RACE IS ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE: Girls did well. Not as good as we hoped but we were proud. Baby girl was great! But the highlight of the day is our boys TOOK STATE!!!! Yeah Panthers! So proud of all our runners. Can't wait until next year.

Here they are  - the state runners and the race is today!!!! Parkway girls have a great chance to win the 4A state title if they can beat Benton! Go Panthers!!!!!!
Update to come!

What's the Rush?

Everywhere I turn, the grocery store, the mall, Target, Wal-Mart- Christmas is EVERYWHERE!!!!! Thanksgiving isn't even here yet people!!! Don't get me wrong - I love to deck my halls and will start playing my Christmas CD's non-stop the day after Thanksgiving straight through New Year's. But can't we just enjoy this Thanksgiving season without hurrying past it to hurl ourselves into the frenzy that is December? I love to decorate for fall. I think it is because I am an autumn person. My house is already painted in all the lovely golds, reds and browns. So while everyone is racing to see who can show off their Christmas bedecked houses first, I am putting up some of my fall decoration pictures. I took these a minute ago and baby girl said, "Mama what are you taking pictures of?" Me - "My hutch." Her - "You are so weird."

 I think this hutch is my favorite piece of furniture in my whole house. Sweet man let me buy it from a store that was going out of business that used it to showcase all their prettys. Now I showcase mine on it! It's so folksy!

My mantle is in my dining room which is painted red and it is my favorite room in my house. Especially when my dining room table is filled with my kiddos. :)

This is my sofa table and I just think all these pumpkins are so cute.

My son's darling girlfriend made me these candy corn trees. Precious!

And this - well nothing says autumn like some yummy cabbage! This one is for you Laura!

Slow down people and savor the moments of November and give thanks to our Lord for all things.

And then everyone come to my house on Friday the day after and help me get out all my Christmas decor!

Blessings,

Michelle

Sweet Saturday Morning

Nothing important - nothing earth-shattering to write about. Just thinking how much the simple things in life bring me the sweetest joy. Sitting in my favorite chair on this cozy rainy day listening to baby girl play the piano and sing about Jesus in the other room. My prayer is that those words become Truth in her life and not just songs to sing but songs to live. Hoping she uses that gift to always glorify Him. She has been down with a major stomach bug but is bouncing back so she can run like the wind at the State cross country meet this next week.
Only thing wrong with my morning is my sweet man is out of town. Tending to some business but I miss him. Got to cozy up in my bed with a cup of coffee with my favorite pumpkin spice creamer and chat on the phone with my sweet mama. I am so thankful God let her be my mama. She is my dearest friend on earth next to Jon.
Like I said, nothing major just a sweet Saturday morning, resting in the comfort of all things that are good right now. Thank you Lord for all my blessings.
Blessings,
Michelle

Healed

Today I had to do something I have had to do too many times in my teaching career - attend a funeral service for one of my former students. A precious twenty-two year old young man who has been valiantly battling leukemia for the last 15 months. This past Saturday the Lord delivered Nathan from his physical battle and healed him completely by bringing him Home.  The church was filled with people coming to pay their respects to Nathan's family. The service began with a beautiful video of Nathan's life with his voice narrating. Nathan spoke to young people several times about his faith and about the urgency of a personal relationship with Jesus. One of the pastors even used one of his caring bridge journals in the service that Nathan wrote about spiritual urgency. You can read it here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/nathangeorge/journal/2

I was so moved by all his classmates and friends that showed up today. However all I could think about were his parents. His momma, daddy and older brother (who read his baby brother's eulogy with so much love and tenderness) are all educators in our parish. They are a sweet, sweet family and fiercely devoted to each other. The pastor spoke about the grief Nathan's  parents are experiencing. He said, "It is not natural for parents to bury their children. When we lose our parents, we lose a piece of our past. But when we lose our children, we lose a piece of our future."  How true. After listening to Nathan's video and how he didn't see his illness as a burden but as a way to glorify God and hearing how many lives he has touched for such a young life I just wanted to tell his parents how remarkable I think they are that our providential God who knew before Nathan was formed how his life would play out, would choose each one of them special to be that precious boy's momma and daddy.  What a road ahead of them, yet they are strong in their faith. They know who to share their grief with to find comfort.

I was challenged today at that service as I hope many others were. Am I sharing my Jesus with others as much as I should? Nathan was bold in his efforts to share the gospel. I am in awe of what a testimony he left. For us left here his life seems too short. God knows what He is doing. We don't always understand it, but that is why He is God and we are not. Oh that our lives would exalt and magnify Christ as Nathan's did. Healed and in the presence of Jesus.

Philippians 1:20
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

What have we been up to?

Well, I had hoped this fall would be less hectic than last year, however that has not really proven to be the case. But, I am learning to give thanks in all circumstances and to thank my Lord for what each day brings. He can teach me some stuff on my bad days!!! Father-in-love is still in rehab recuperating and gaining his strength back from open heart surgery and my sweet man has been battling a kidney stone from Hades for the past few weeks. ARGH! But he is on the mend now.

So what have we been up to in the midst of all our issues:

Lots of cross country racing. Baby girl gets faster each and every week. Notice she sped past that girl and beat her! She set a personal best last weekend. Run child run! State Championship coming up in two weeks. Our girls have a great shot at winning.

Lots of Trick-or-Treating with a cute little lion!

He doesn't respond to "Cheese" but "Show me your smile" gets him all lit up! He loves suckers!

Lots of loving on my sweet family.

Lots of "scary" spook trails at Mimi and Old Paw's Halloween party. It is a lot less scary in the daylight!

Lots of hayriding without the hay - weather has been too dry for anyone to sell any! That is one darling Spiderman!

One minute my sweet grandpeep Connor was there and the next he vanished and here was SPIDERMAN!!!!



I am glad October is over. I am anxious for this month of November and all the feelings of thanksgiving that we have to experience. I really love Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for this year. I hope you will start preparing now to thank our Lord for everything He does but more importantly we need to remember to thank Him for Who He Is. A Great and Mighty Savior who is everything to me.

Blessings,
Michelle